A charge-sheet has been filed against popular Malayalam actor Mohanlal for the illegal possession of ivory.
A charge-sheet has been filed against popular Malayalam actor Mohanlal for the illegal possession of ivory.
A charge-sheet has been filed against popular Malayalam actor Mohanlal for the illegal possession of ivory.
Kochi: A charge-sheet has been filed against popular Malayalam actor Mohanlal for the illegal possession of ivory. The forest department submitted the report today at the Perumbavoor magistrate court seven years after ivory tusks were seized from the actor’s residence in Kochi.
The possession and transfer of ivory are against the law as per the Wildlife Protection Act, the charge-sheet stated.
The incident first grabbed the headlines way back in June 2012.
The Kerala High Court had questioned the delay in the follow-up action in the case. The HC had asked the magistrate court to submit a report on the reason for the delay of three weeks. Subsequently, the forest department filed the charge-sheet.
The Income Tax officials had seized four ivory tusks from the actor's residence at Thevara in Kerala's Ernakulam district in a raid conducted in 2012. The licence for possessing the ivory was in the name of two other people, it was later revealed.
Mohanlal explained that he had bought the ivory tusks from one K Krishnakumar for Rs 65,000.
Though the forest department had filed a case initially, it was later quashed. The government also allowed Mohanlal to keep the ivory by modifying the existing law.
However, Ernakulam native A A Paulose had approached the High Court, seeking to quash the principal chief conservator's order that granted the ownership certificate of the ivory tusks to Mohanlal.